You do know that we are putting on a huge and awesome music festival, in the beautiful city of Edmonton, right?! We are getting pretty damn excited for The Interstellar Rodeo, which is a mere three weeks away, and we’ve got a lot of news to share with you:

CHECK OUT THE DELICIOUS WINES WE HAVE IN STORE FOR YOU!

Yup, that is a real headline. We have always enjoyed pairing music with delicious boooooze here in Six Shooter land, and for our very own music festival, we figured that we might as well get klassy wit’ it!

And so, we are so very pleased to have Gurvinder Bathia, Edmonton’s resident wine expert purveyor, on our Interstellar team. He has sourced the most amazing wines for you to, pairing each concert set at the festival with the perfect wine to complement the music. Check out this example:

Alejandro EscovedoDe Angelis Rosso Piceno, Marche Italy

If you haven’t heard of Alejandro Escovedo then you need to grab yourself a glass of Rosso Piceno and a listen and discover why this underground punk and roots rock sensation has built such a mainstream following. Similarly, one taste and there’s no denying the appeal of this smoky, meaty, juicy wine from Italy’s rural Marche region. Both Escovedo and De Angelis owner Quinto Fausti are comfortable avoiding the spotlight, but their respective talents and reputations keep threatening to drag them out from the underground.

It’s a good thing Gurvinder is on the job, because I tried writing my own pairing for myself, and it didn’t go nearly as well:

Newsletter Writing MonkeyWhatever Is Cheap, Probably Australia

If you haven’t heard of the monkey who writes this newsletter, then you need to grab yourself a glass of something cheap and hope it gets you drunk before you discover why bad puns have not built a mainstream following. Similarly, one taste and there’s no denying the appeal of a low price when it comes to thin, uninteresting wine from the “probably Australia” region. Both the newsletter writing monkey, and the pimply teen working at that cheap liquor store are (by default) comfortable drinking this swill, watching their talents and reputations go to waste as they get dragged to the underground.

ANNOUNCING FIVE GREAT FOOD TRUCKS

We’re totally stoked to have five amazing gourmet food trucks on board at the Interstellar Rodeo to keep you fully satiated. Edmonton’s food truck scene has really gone nutso lately, and we picked out some of our faves to keep you fed and caffeinated during your life-changing Interstellar Rodeo experience! They are: Drift Food Truck, Eva Sweet, The Act, Transcend Coffee, and one other one, yet to be announced. Anyone who has spent time around me knows that I complain pretty much daily about having eaten too much and having drank too much coffee (first world problems, I know), and I can tell you already that Interstellar Rodeo will be no different.

ENTER OUR HAPPY HOUR CONTEST

Take a picture of you and a sign that says “Meet me at the Interstellar Rodeo” and post it on Facebook (tag us at http://Facebook.com/InterstellarRodeo ), tweet it (copy @SixShooter), or Instagram it (tag #sixshooterrecords)…and we’ll invite you to the Interstellar Rodeo Happy Hour on Fri, July 27 (5-7pm).

Speaking of the above contest, we got a head start on you! Six Shooter is now on Instagram! Before we told ourselves that we aren’t allowed to enter our own contest, we tried to pull a sneaky and enter first with this gem: http://instagram.com/p/Mqm0h3qENl/.

Be sure to follow us on Instagram now to see thrilling photos of our lunches and piles of road cases that various Six Shooter artists leave piled up in our office. We will surely be posting a buttload of photos from the Interstellar Rodeo too! Yay social networking!

Hit an indie record store near you to pick up vinyl copies of all of our latest releases: the excellent new album, Stars and Satellites by Trampled by Turtles, Deep Dark Woods’ fantastic Six Shooter debut, The Place I Left Behind, the self-titled debut recording by Whitehorse, and the new vinyl release of Del Barber’s Headwaters. Don’t leave your new wax out in the sun though, or you’ll be left showing off your new funky vinyl salad bowl to your date instead of your exquisite taste in music!

Take a picture of you and a sign that says “Meet me at the Interstellar Rodeo” and post it on Facebook (InterstellarRodeo), tweet it (copy @SixShooter), or Instagram it…and we’ll invite you to the Interstellar Rodeo Happy Hour on Fri, July 27 (5-7pm).

Disappointed as we were that Sinead O’Connor had to cancel all of her tour dates this year — our festival included — we are very excited to announce that Gillian Welch will be making a rare trip out to the Canadian Prairies to headline the Friday night of Interstellar Rodeo! Oh, and since we consider our festival lineup to be as fierce as the mythical Hydra, we are following its example of “cut off one head and two grow back” by adding not only modern legend Gillian Welch, but also modern legend Alejandro Escovedo and the Sensitive Boys to our Friday night festivities!! That’s right, we took lemons and made them into Limonata soda, then added a shot of Amaretto and turned ‘em into the official drink of summer! Woo! The festival takes place July 27-29 at the Heritage Amphitheatre in Hawrelak Park in sunny Edmonton, AB.

With partner David Rawlings, Welch has released five critically acclaimed albums, as well as contributing to the landmark soundtrack Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? Her most recent album, The Harrow & The Harvest, was her first in eight years, and signaled the return of an artist who has helped shape a newfound appreciation for old time traditions in mainstream music. Plus she has a song on that album called ‘Six White Horses’, which is about watching Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland when you are really drunk*.

*this song is not actually about watching Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland when you are really drunk.

Now that we have our Friday night headliner in place, we are ready to put single tickets on sale. You’ll be able to purchase these from Ticketmaster or through the Six Shooter Records website (http://www.sixshooterrecords.com/) as of Monday, May 28. We’ll extend the Early Bird pricing until then, after which the price for a weekend pass will increase to $169 for non-transferable and $179 for transferable. Please note, we are offering a free album to all folks who purchase an adult or youth/senior weekend pass through the Six Shooter Records website. For those of you who like the idea of going into a place and buying your physical tickets right on the spot, you can march right into Blackbyrd Myoozik (10442-82 Ave., Edmonton) and

See http://www.interstellarrodeo.com for full details on the artists and schedule, and stay tuned for exciting announcements regarding food and wine! Follow us on Twitter @SixShooterR and like us on Facebook at Six Shooter Records and/or Interstellar Rodeo.

Congratulations to Six Shooter’s newest artist, Del Barber, who released his latest, Headwaters, to hot reviews across the country and a beautiful performance on CBC Q. He’s tearing up the road from coast to coast on a tour with Old Man Luedecke, after which he’ll be playing loads more dates and festivals in the summer months. Check tour dates for a chance to see him live.

I know this is unrelated, but I think my favourite Spanish word might be Abogado. I think it’s fun to say, and I kind of like picturing lawyers being made into guacamole. Ok, carry on.

We are soooo excited about Victoria Day, that we thought it would be appropriate to chuck a bunch of our artists over to her Royal Ghostness’ home turf. The Good Lovelies are tearing it up right now in the UK (don’t worry, there is more Canadian greatness to come too)! Whitehorse embarked on their own UK (and Netherlands) tour starting today! And if that wasn’t enough, we’re sending the lovely Amelia Curran over to wow the Brits in June. Now that’s what I call stuffing the chips in the haddock!

I’ve already gone through two propane tanks this BBQ season, which I’m pretty sure means that I am doing summer right so far (or maybe that I am doing BBQing wrong, but whatevs). I get one summer point each for the used propane tanks, and I just got another summer point for cutting the sleeves off my t-shirt… not a bad start for the early summer rankings, should be a good season.

With so many great festivals to attend, it’s no surprise that summer is our favourite season (non-freezing coldness helps too). Attending festivals = summer points galore! We’re so pleased that our western Canadian friends will have multiple opportunities to check the Beauties, known in our hometown as Toronto’s best roots music band. They’ll be rocking the soles of folks at the Winnipeg Folk Fest, Dauphin Countryfest, South Country Fair, Calgary Folk Fest, and our own Interstellar Rodeo. Whitehorse is going to rock your socks off, too, at Ness Creek, Calgary Folk Festival, Interstellar Rodeo, and others not announced yet. And Deep Dark Woods are taking their great sounds all over the place…in addition to a number of great Canadian festivals such as Dawson City Music Festival (one of my fave festivals everrr) and Hillside, they are also playing Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival, Bristol Rhythm and Blues in America; and Tonder, End of the Road and Great Wide Open (which is kind of the opposite of Deep Dark Woods, innit?) festivals in Europe. Check tour dates for these and other appearances by all of Six Shooter artists, like Jenn Grant, Bidiniband, and more.

Hit an indie record store near you to pick up vinyl copies of all of our latest releases: the excellent new album, Stars and Satellites by Trampled by Turtles, Deep Dark Woods’ fantastic Six Shooter debut, The Place I Left Behind, and the self-titled debut recording by Whitehorse. Also stay tuned for the vinyl release of Del Barber’s Headwaters…pre-orders available soon through our webstore. I love vinyl so much! The giant glorious artwork, the smell of fresh wax when you first pull your record from the sleeve, the pop of the needle when you drop it on that first groove, the opportunity to roll your eyes and shake your fist in the air when some dweeb says “they still make those things?”, being a record nerd is tha coolest!

I’ve only recently realized that playing the popular downtown pedestrian / public transit game of “Bluetooth or crazy” actually kind of sucks. Either way I am decidedly non-stoked on the outcome. It’s kind of like playing “dog fart or human fart” (a game I never want to play), you are in for a stinky no matter what.

A much better game is “Whitehorse or Jenn Grant”, since a) it’s easy, they sound different, and b) either way you win!! Both artists are putting finishing touches on their respective near-complete new albums, and will both be released this summer. Have I mentioned how much I love summer? Amelia Curran is also in the middle of a new record, which we hope will be released in the fall (um, have I mentioned how much I love fall? Not as much as summer, but Amelia’s album will still rule). And the Good Lovelies just recorded a live album at Revolution Recording — keep your ears tuned.

Smoky Mountain spirit Gillian Welch and Texas punk roots rocker Alejandro Escovedo and the Sensitive Boys are confirmed additions to Friday, July 27, the opening night of the first ever Interstellar Rodeo. Welch and Escovedo replace Sinéad O’Connor, who recently cancelled all upcoming tour dates due to illness. Together, Welch and Escovedo bring a distinctly southern shade to Friday’s show, and the heart of modern Americana music will beat strong on the Interstellar stage.

SINGLE TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE AS OF MONDAY, MAY 28, 2012. Tickets will be available at www.sixshooterrecords.com, Ticket Master and Blackbyrd.